Recommend Some WELL-WRITTEN Speculative Fiction

[rioted]

also Ursula Le Guin

Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time is too.

 

[Brainaddict]

Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time is too.

Good one

 

[Maurice Picarda]

Michel Faber's Under the Skin is as beautifully written as anything else he does and uncharacteristically SF.

 

[DotCommunist]

my "virulent streak of anti-spec" is based on a lot of reading in the spec genre: it's not a prejudice, it's an empirical standpoint.

the genre is awash with shite, yes. I'd suggest reading Interzone and sci fi anthologies- not only does that point you towards good stuff you also get random forays into genre from authors who never normally stray out of mainstream fictions

 

[Idaho]

Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Travellers Wife, is well worth a read.

 

[Brainaddict]

Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Travellers Wife, is well worth a read.

Not well written though

 

[maya]

NOT really speculative fiction (it's 'weird tales'/horror), but vaguely in the same vein- remembering your dislike of Lovecraft, I'll recommend instead the mighty Robert W. Chambers: 'The King In Yellow', and 'collected weird stories'... Lovely purple prose horror*, even better than Machen... Great stuff.

(*and, contrary to the 'clumsiness' of modern overwritten stuff, his writing is a joy to read, it flows naturally and beautifully... Strange tales by gaslight...)

 

[kabbes]

I was going to reccommend some stuff, then it struck me that in all the books, music and film threads on Urban, I don't think we've ever agreed on anything, ever (even if you don't realise that because I haven't bothered to post about it.) So maybe it is best for both of us if I stay away!

 

[sojourner]

Shikasta, by Doris Lessing, if you haven't read it already.

One of the greatest books I have EVER read, I rate it that highly.

 

[El Jefe]

ETA: also Ursula Le Guin but you've probably read her.

yeh, she's one of the greats

And Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - it desperately needed a harsher editor but not because of the prose style.

Couldn't finish it - i was too bored by the beginning of book 2

 

[El Jefe]

Shikasta, by Doris Lessing, if you haven't read it already.

One of the greatest books I have EVER read, I rate it that highly.

OK

 

[sojourner]

OK

Her writing style could sometimes be improved on, but the ideas themselves are enough to forgive her that

Could swap you in Wales if you like, for Kavalier and Klay?

 

[DotCommunist]

Oh and for a great (perhaps my favorite) female sci fi author try Tricia Sullivan. Maul is a great bit of writing, two distinctly separate and yet subtly interwoven pieces all in one book.

Plus you can't go far wrong with neal stephensons Cryptonomicon.

 

[El Jefe]

Could swap you in Wales if you like, for Kavalier and Klay?

OK

 

[Brainaddict]

Oh and for a great (perhaps my favorite) female sci fi author try Tricia Sullivan. Maul is a great bit of writing, two distinctly separate and yet subtly interwoven pieces all in one book.

Plus you can't go far wrong with neal stephensons Cryptonomicon.

Hmm, his shorter earlier books were good. He now suffers from Bloat and a case of Seriously Spineless Editors. IMO of course.

 

[DotCommunist]

Hmm, his shorter earlier books were good. He now suffers from Bloat and a case of Seriously Spineless Editors. IMO of course.

Sad git that I am I like authors going off on one and greet a well written digression with childish glee

 

[Orang Utan]

don't you think it's often really overcooked though, and I can find endless examples of "objectively" bad writing - tautology, incorrect adjectives (not using them "creatively", but using them completely wrongly), stuff like that.

Examples? I can't recall thinking he was a bad writer - I enjoyed him immensely

 

[El Jefe]

Examples? I can't recall thinking he was a bad writer - I enjoyed him immensely

I'll dig some out tonight.

 

[DotCommunist]

A lot of people like Gene Wolfe but I can't get into him personally - better writing than most though, for sure.

.

there is a measured gravity and unique subtlety at play in his work. For an intro people might want to try the short piece 'fifth head of cerberus'

Then straight onto the Severian books

 

[kabbes]

Jefe, it's hardly an original or unusual suggestion, but have you read the Foundation books by Asimov?

 

[DotCommunist]

Jefe, it's hardly an original or unusual suggestion, but have you read the Foundation books by Asimov?

If no jefe, don't bother cause they are turgid shite.

 

[kabbes]

If no jefe, don't bother cause they are turgid shite.

Fuck you in the head.

 

[El Jefe]

If no jefe, don't bother cause they are turgid shite.

I read them years ago. They were turgid shite.

 

[kabbes]

This is why I wasn't going to bother. NONE OF YOU UNDERSTAND ME.

 

[DotCommunist]

Asimov suffers from a thing I am going to cal 'Egans disease' after the brilliantly cerebral ideas-man authour Greg Egan.

His books stand or fall on the quality and interestingness of the idea. And the idea of Psychohistory is flawed and boring.

 

[Fruitloop]

Iain M Banks I guess, he can do it either genre or non-genre. Some Greg Egan is very good as well, particularly Permutation City and Diaspora.

 

[kabbes]

Asimov suffers from a thing I am going to cal 'Egans disease' after the brilliantly cerebral ideas-man authour Greg Egan.

His books stand or fall on the quality and interestingness of the idea. And the idea of Psychohistory is flawed and boring.

Now you are really raising my ire. I am thoroughly ired.

 

[DotCommunist]

Iain M Banks I guess, he can do it either genre or non-genre. Some Greg Egan is very good as well, particularly Permutation City and Diaspora.

Axiomatic is full of Win and good short pieces. Diaspora is full of interesting Fail, but still Fail. IMO

 

[Idaho]

Not well written though

It wasn't that bad. A bit florid for my tastes, but then most female writers are.

 

[DotCommunist]

It wasn't that bad. A bit florid for my tastes, but then most female writers are.

thread takes off